Your net worth to the world is usually determined
by what remains
after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones.
-Benjamin Franklin
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What is a Habit?
A Habit is an act you do without giving it much of a conscious attention. When you have done something so many times consistently that you don’t have to think anymore to do it because it’s innate in you now, it’s called a Habit.
In order to understand it better, think of anything you do every day, let’s say driving your automobile. When you first learn to drive it, you needed all your attention on driving it, and you still couldn’t do it nicely, but after doing it over and over again, now you can drive your automobile without any difficulty even while you are busy talking to someone on phone.
When you wake up in the morning and begin your day, your body would automatically begin to do all the tasks that you need to do before starting your work. It’s because all those tasks are habits stored in the subconscious mind which doesn’t need much of your conscious attention.
Habits are of two types, good habits, and bad habits. The problem is that our habits are stored in the subconscious mind which then is expressed through our bodies in the form of our behaviors, but the subconscious mind cannot differentiate between a good habit and bad habit, it’s like the earth whatever you plant in it will grow, be it good or bad.
Most of us create bad habits, unconsciously, through associating with the people, and conditions that represent those habits.
Creating a good habit is no more difficult than creating a bad habit; it’s all a matter of what we feed to our subconscious mind on a regular basis.
Remember that to create good habits that will change your life forever, you have to change how you think and how you feel. The most productive way to achieve that is Meditation.
When you change the way you think and feel, your mind is open and receptive to new creative habits.
Following are the six good habits, if you develop them, they will bring you in harmony with the natural laws of your being, and your life will be changed forever.
Habit #1 – Be Responsible
Most people live their lives irresponsibly.
What do I mean by that?
Well, if you ask someone about what’s happening in their lives, they will tell you what’s wrong about their lives and who is responsible for their condition; they will always put the blame on someone.
What they are actually saying is that if somebody or something changes, then their life would get better; yet the truth is that your life can only get better when you change yourself.
Human Life is the most precious creation in the universe, and you are here to express and represent this most precious creation of God.
So it is your duty to take responsibility for your life, begin by accepting the fact that you are the cause of your problems, and you are also the solution to all your problems.
Understand this – In the whole scheme of the expression of life, you are a unique expression. The power that you are an expression of lives within you and all around you all the times, it loves you so much, it wants to give you everything you desire, but for it to express itself in a greater way in your life, you have to bring your uniqueness to the surface.
A simple exercise for it is that when you wake up in the morning, sit in a relaxed state and close your eyes and see yourself in your mind accomplishing your goals, think of how you would feel when you would achieve your goal or dream, and bring as much of that feeling as you can in your body. Then, give thanks for the experience as you have already lived it.
Then get up, and begin your day with the thought that whatever is going to happen to me today (good or bad) would be there to take me closer to the goal that I created in my mind.
Your responsibility then is to be able to maintain that state of mind your entire day, independent of what happened in your environment, independent of body’s craving for familiar emotion, and independent of time (past or future).
If you take that responsibility, then unpredictable things would begin to happen in your life, and in a relatively short period of time, what was once a dream in your mind would become your reality, because that’s an absolute law.
Other responsibilities you should take care of is – take the necessary actions you have to take, respect all people because they are the expression of the same power you are an expression of, do your work the best you can, and trust the power within you.
This habit will improve your productivity, your effectiveness, your thoughts, your logic, use of your time, etc.
Habit #2 – Create a vision of your future
As Dr. Joe Dispenza always says that, “If you are not defined by a vision of the future, then you are left with the old memories of the past, and you will be predictable in your life”
Why having a vision of the future is important for a fulfilled life?
Think of it this way- everything you do in your daily life has a vision or purpose associated with it otherwise you wouldn’t do it, the purpose behind brushing your teeth is to get rid of the germs and bad smell, the purpose of eating is to satisfy your hunger, the purpose of driving your automobile is to reach somewhere, the purpose or vision behind working is to be able to afford a comfortable living.
Now, if all those little tasks you do has a purpose behind it, then isn’t it foolish to live your life without a purpose or vision.
So if you don’t have a vision of the future, you will keep repeating the same actions and behaviors that you need to survive in your environment.
However, when you have a vision of your future, then you have something greater to live for and work for, and that would give you enthusiasm, persistence, desire, drive, and a sense of responsibility.
In the great book, “Psycho-Cybernetics” author Dr. Maxwell Maltz said-
“Every living thing has a built-in guidance system or goal-striving device, put there by its Creator to help it achieve its goal—which is, in broad terms—to “live.” In the simpler forms of life the goal “to live” simply means physical survival for both the individual and the species. The built-in mechanism in animals is limited to finding food and shelter, avoiding or overcoming enemies and hazards, and procreation to insure the survival of the species.
In man, the goal “to live” means more than mere survival. For an animal to “live” simply means that certain physical needs must be met. Man has certain emotional and spiritual needs which animals do not have. Consequently for man to “live” encompasses more than physical survival and procreation of the species. It requires certain emotional and spiritual satisfactions as well. Man’s built-in “Success Mechanism” also is much broader in scope than an animal’s. In addition to helping man avoid or overcome danger, and the “sexual instinct” which helps keep the race alive, the Success Mechanism in man can help him get answers to problems, invent, write poetry, run a business, sell merchandise, explore new horizons in science, attain more peace of mind, develop a better personality, or achieve success in any other activity which is intimately tied in to his “living” or makes for a fuller life.”
Now think of this, if you don’t have a clear vision of your future then your built-in success mechanism doesn’t have a higher goal to work for except to ensure your survival.
In order to make this success mechanism, to work for you, you must have a clear vision of your future. You must know what you want to accomplish in your life.
When you have this clear vision of your future in your mind, then surrender this vision to your success mechanism. It will bring plans, ideas, and conditions in your life through which your vision would be realized in your physical reality.
Now, the way you surrender or handover your vision to your inner success mechanism is to build a clear image of the life you truly want to live, and keep it in your conscious mind most of the time.
Sit in a relaxed state close your eyes and see yourself living in that life and feel the emotion of how you would feel when it would really happen. Do it every day.
As you would begin to feel the emotion of your future before it made manifest, your success mechanism would take over and begin its work to make that vision a reality.
The habit of keeping your vision in your mind most of the time is making sure that you would realize it.
Habit #3- Live in the Now
The third and one of the most powerful habits you can develop is the habit of living in the present moment.
What do I mean by living in the Now?
If you observe your thoughts all day, you would find that most of your thoughts are either about the familiar past or the predictable future.
You think about your problems which are the outcome of your past behaviors, or you get anxious about the potential problems you might have in the future.
Now, researches have shown that we think sixty to seventy thousand thoughts per day, but 90% of those thoughts are the same thoughts as we think the day before.
So, when you are thinking in either the past or the future, you are not living in the now.
When you take all of your attention from what happened in the past, or what may happen in the future, and you bring all of your awareness in the present moment, that’s where you are in the creative state and that’s where the real life exists.
Now, have a goal image in your mind of what you want to accomplish in your life, see yourself in your mind accomplishing your desire, but when you have a clear image in our mind then don’t think how it would happen, that’s not your job.
Your job is to do everything you can do in the present moment that would help you to move in the direction of your end goal, and then let go and let God.
In order to practice living in the present moment what you should do is to create the habit of doing one thing at a time.
When you talk to someone give them your undivided attention when you do your work give it your undivided attention, when you read a book give it your undivided attention; and whenever your attention drifts away, recognize that and bring it back again where you want it to be.
If you do so, you will develop your will power and power of concentration.
Observe everything that is happening in the present moment in your life, and understand that everything that’s happening (good or bad) is happening to make the way for you to achieve your goal.
Habit #4- Study Everyday
Every successful person has a habit of studying his craft every day. If you want to be successful in your life, studying about yourself and your work every day is essential.
When you study something you gain knowledge, through the knowledge you gain an understanding of how things happen, through understanding you gain confidence, and with the confidence, you will make better choices that would allow you to take inspired actions which would ultimately improve the results you are getting in your life.
Everything that you do every day is an expression of what’s going on in your mind, so in all of your studies, the understanding of the mind is the most important of all study.
The mind is the greatest tool that human beings have been given, but most people don’t have an understanding of how their mind works, and because of that most of the time they keep doing the things that they know they shouldn’t be doing.
Our mind can be divided into two parts, one is the conscious mind where our wishes and dreams are, we think, and make decisions with our conscious mind.
The other part of the mind is the subconscious mind, it’s the part of our mind is where all our habits and mental programs are.
The expression of your life is the expression of the dominating belief in your mind. So if you want to change your life you have to change what is ruling over your mind.
The best book that I can recommend for you to study about the mind is the great book written by Dr. Josheph Murphy – “The Power of your Subconscious Mind”.
Get a copy of this book and read some pages of it every day, through this book you will understand how your mind works, and you will learn the simple methods through which can take control of your mind and ultimately your life.
Habit #5 Practicing Gratitude
Practicing gratitude is one of the best practices to become more happy, serene, calm, and appreciative of life.
In his classic book “The Science of getting rich” author Wallace D. wattles said-
“The whole process of mental adjustment and atonement can be summed up in one word, gratitude.”
Now, if we see it in simple terms we give gratitude when a favor is done to us and we acknowledge it.
When someone does something nice for us we say thank you. When we receive something we give thanks.
So, when we practice gratitude, we are acknowledging that we have received something favorable.
As we feel the gratitude for the things that we only have in our conscious mind, the subconscious mind would take it as we have already received those things because the subconscious mind doesn’t know the difference between what’s real and what’s just an imagination.
What it does is that it puts us into the harmonious vibration of the things we want, and then by the virtue of the law of attraction we attract those things into our life.
Dr. Joe Dispenza says that “Emotions like gratitude and appreciation open your heart and lift the energy in your body to a new place—out of the lower hormonal centers. Gratitude is one of the most powerful emotions for increasing your level of suggestibility. It teaches your body emotionally that the event you’re grateful for has already happened, because we usually give thanks after a desirable event has occurred. If you bring up the emotion of gratitude before the actual event, your body (as the unconscious mind) will begin to believe that the future event has indeed already happened—or is happening to you in the present moment. Gratitude, therefore, is the ultimate state of receivership.”
So, it means that when you practice gratitude every day, the things you want starts to move towards you.
The simple way to practice gratitude is to every day, in the morning, write down at least 10 things you are grateful for and then feel the feeling of gratitude.
In this exercise, you should also include the things that you only have in your mind, the things that you want to accomplish, and then feel gratitude for them as you have already achieved them.
The other thing that practice of gratitude would do for you is that it would cause you to rise above the competitive thoughts and you would become more creative and productive.
Habit #6 Give more than you take
Everybody wants more in their life; it is inherent in us to desire more so that we can grow into a higher expression of ourselves. The Eternal spirit within us is always seeking greater and fuller expression through us.
In the book “ The Science of Getting Rich” author wrote –
“The desire for increase is inherent in all nature; it is the fundamental impulse of the universe. All human activities are based on the desire for increase; people are seeking more food, more clothes, better shelter, more luxury, more beauty, more knowledge, more pleasure– increase in something, more life.
Every living thing is under this necessity for continuous advancement; where increase of life ceases, dissolution and death set in at once. Man instinctively knows this, and hence he is forever seeking more.”
Now, when you make it a habit of giving more to everyone that you take from them, you will help them grow, and as a result of that, you will begin to grow in whatever work you are doing.
To understand it better, let’s say you wanted to buy a car, but you weren’t sure which one you needed, you went to the car dealer, talk to the salesperson, that salesperson understands your situation, he asked you many questions regarding what you were looking for, analyze the situation with his understanding, and show you a car, and when you saw it you knew that it’s the perfect car for you.
You get happy, you might even give the salesperson a nice tip, and in the future when you or your friend would want a new car that salesperson would be the first to come in your mind.
When he gave you the best value of your time and money, you appreciated that and both of you benefitted.
When you give the best service you can, not just what you are getting paid for, but what your client need and what you have to offer, you left an impression of increase upon that client. When you give the best you’ve got, you receive what’s best for you, that’s the law.
We all engage in many trades throughout our entire day, we trade our time, our money, our thoughts, our emotions, our service, etc.
If we make a habit that whatever trade we are engaged in, we would always give more, in values, than we take, everything in our life will start to improve.
Whatever you do, every day, just try to give a little more value today than you did yesterday, and you would understand the power of giving.
You would find that the secret of receiving is GIVING.
Thank You very much for your time…
-Parvez Alam
(author of “How to Take Control of Your Life“)